After a reproduction of a U.S. military leaflet from one of Mroué's exhibitions is interpreted as an actual threat, the artist follows the consequences of this image, and similar ones, on the environment it inhabits. Rabih Mroué's Before Falling Seek the Assistance of Your Cane, is a lecture-performance, or what Rabih calls a non-academic lecture, that reflects on the unstable relationship between images, politics, and reality. What begins as a slightly humorous personal story, gradually unfolds into a larger reflection into how images acquire authority, shape perception, and influence our interaction with the world.

Working in his characteristic essayistic form, Mroué combines archival fragments, images, and personal references, into a politically informed performance that blends and breaks the boundaries between reality and fiction. Balancing intellectual thought with disarming playfulness, Before Falling Seek the Assistance of Your Cane questions how images ultimately shape reality.

LA